Deathmatch '95
'Deathmatch '95 '''was an international eSports tournament that was financed by id Software, GT Interactive Software, DWANGO and Microsoft. Deathmatch '95 was considered one of the first eSports tournaments to use the modern concept of online matchmaking, pioneered by the DWANGO service that was made compatible for the first person shooter, Doom'' in 1994. The finals were hosted at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, United States of America for the Microsoft "Judgement Day" event. 24 finalists from the United States of America and the United Kingdom had made it to the event with Dennis Fong (Thresh) taking the victory laurels. Background In 1994, Bob Huntley and Kee Kimbrell's had created the Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation (DWANGO), a platform that would allow for online video game competition beyond that of a Local Area Network (LAN). The product was pitched as a modification for the video game ''Doom II'' where it received support for implementation from id Software co-founder, John Romero. On the 30th September 1994, Doom II ''was released and with the DWANGO product in operation, players were for the first time able to compete online via WAN connection. Online competition was hosted on 22 servers located in Houston, Texas where a monthly subscription fee of $8.95 USD to the DWANGO server was required to compete. The Tournament Registration By the middle of 1995, DWANGO had an international player base of over 10 000 dialling into its central server in Houston, Texas. From this player base, DWANGO decided to see if it could find the best Deathmatch player worldwide. With support from its financial partners such as ''Doom ''series developers, id Software, ''Doom ''series publishers, GT Interactive Software and operating system providers, Microsoft, DWANGO announced to the world on the 21st September 1995 that their player base would now have the opportunity to enter the Deathmatch '95 competition. Those players whom chose to enter the tournament were granted a 'VIP' status and would have free participation on DWANGO servers until their elimination from the tournament. The tournament would take place across all DWANGO servers for the games, ''Doom II: Hell on Earth, ''The Ultimate Doom'''' and [[Heretic|''Heretic]]. '' Competition The main tournament was contested between the 18th September to the 29th September 1995 where the two leading players from each server would be sent to the Microsoft Redmond Campus in Washington for the finals series. The format for the competition was a single elimination 1v1 where players would play their opponent over three five minute games on the video games, ''Doom II: Hell on Earth, The Ultimate Doom ''and ''Heretic. '' The winner of the tournament would receive 'VIP' status on DWANGO for a full year, a lifetime supply of free id Software video games and a state of the art Windows 95 operating system that was worth $10 000 USD. The Finals On the 30th October 1995 twenty North American champions with two outsider champions hailing from Europe entered the finals for the Deathmatch '95 tournament. These twenty two champions were subsequently invited and flown to Washington, United States of America for Microsoft's Judgement Day event at their Redmond Campus. The event was primarily designed to celebrate the release of Windows 95 and the launch of Microsoft Game Studios. As apart of this celebration, the eSports tournament was given significant promotion. Jay Leno played host to the event that would be televised throughout the United States. Bill Gates meanwhile gave a speech about DirectX and the value it had for competitive gaming performance. He even suggested he would play in "the big ''Doom tournament" that would be hosted in 1996. Concerning the eSports event, there were two players that were considered the lead favourites heading into the tournament. The first of which being Dennis Fong (Thresh) ''whilst his chief rival was expected to be that of Ted Peterson (''Merlock). ''The two rivals faced off against eachother in the semi finals to which Fong took the victory. Peterson was so frustrated that according to Fong, "he slammed the keyboard and threw his chair off-stage" The grand final would be a somewhat new encounter for both players as they were required to conclude the tournament on the video game, [[Hexen: Beyond Heretic|''Hexen: Beyond Heretic]]'' which was officially released on the same day as the Judgement Day event. Dennis Fong (''Thresh)'s opponent in the grand final was a player whom used the alias, ''Stoney''. In the opening match of Hexen: Beyond Heretic's official release, Fong defeated ''Stoney ''and was crowned the champion of the DWANGO service.